AN ANGRY farmer threaten- ed to kill an animal health inspector and held a female vet's face under inches of slurry until she could not breathe, a court has heard.

Roger Baker, 61, ran at inspector Jonathan McCulloch and government vet Susan Potter during a visit to his farm at Ventongimps, near Truro in Cornwall, last year, Taunton Crown Court heard.

The court was told that Baker, who farmed two plots of land near the village, appeared "from nowhere" on February 25 to attack the two officials in his slurry-filled farmyard.

He first grabbed Mr McCulloch, who works for Cornwall County Council, and dragged him across the yard by his overalls into the slurry pit, the jury of eight men and four women were told.

As Mr McCulloch shouted for help, Mrs Potter, who was attempting to capture conditions on the farm on her video camera, stopped filming, the jury heard. She waded in to try to rescue Mr McCulloch, but was then attacked herself.

Prosecuting barrister Michael Brabin QC said, "He grabbed her by the neck and pulled her to the ground and dragged her to the mire and tried to drown her, or that was her impression." She was covered in the wet substance, he said, a combination of mud, animal faeces and urine.

Baker, who lives in a caravan on his land, denies making threats to kill Mr McCulloch and also denies a second charge of affray.

The two officials were on Baker's premises after a call from a concerned member of the public who feared Baker's animals were being maltreated.